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Lady Vols softball team drops two of three in series with Lady Bulldogs
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“Get passionate” with Ellen Larson Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Issue 45
E D I T O R I A L L Y
I N D E P E N D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://dailybeacon.utk.edu
Vol. 113 S T U D E N T
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U N I V E R S I T Y
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SGA campaigns target university issues Ex-NYC crane inspector pleads guilty to bribery NEW YORK — New York City's former chief crane inspector has admitted taking more than $10,000 in payoffs to fake inspection and crane operator licensing exam results. James Delayo pleaded guilty Tuesday to receiving bribes. He showed no emotion as he read a short statement in court acknowledging his crime. Delayo is to be sentenced May 4. He faces two to six years in prison. "As a former City crane inspector, this defendant was paid and obligated to safeguard the public," said Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. "Instead, he sold out and compromised public safety for tainted cash." Delayo was arrested when officials scrutinized the city's oversight of cranes after two of the rigs collapsed and killed people in 2008. But the charges against him weren't tied to the collapses. Obama officials say US drug demand fuels violence MEXICO CITY — A cast of senior U.S. security officials pledged long-term support for Mexico's drug war while acknowledging Tuesday that an insatiable U.S. appetite for illegal narcotics, coupled with a flow of U.S. arms into Mexico, is at the core of the problem. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who led the U.S. delegation at a daylong meeting with top Mexican government officials, told a news conference afterward that Washington must do more to limit the movement of illicit weapons into Mexico from the U.S. "Yes, we accept our share of the responsibility," Clinton said, with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa at her side. "We know that the demand for drugs drives much of this illicit trade and that guns purchases in the U.S. are used to facilitate violence here in Mexico. The United States must and is doing its part" to counteract those two elements of the drug-related violence.” Arrest in Venezuela raises free speech concerns CARACAS, Venezuela — The arrest of an outspoken government opponent for his critical remarks on a TV talk show drew condemnation on Tuesday from opposition parties and human rights activists who said the case shows freedoms are being eroded in Venezuela. Opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was detained by police on Monday and has been charged with conspiracy, spreading false information and publicly inciting violation.
• Photo courtesy of Fuse
FUSE Flora Theden Managing Editor Voting for the Student Government Association takes place Wednesday and Thursday. Any graduate or undergraduate student who is taking one or more hours is eligible to vote. Members from political parties Transform and Fuse have spent this week campaigning ferociously, holding various events and passing out materials on the Pedestrian Mall. Tommy Jervis, Fuse candidate for SGA president, is a junior from Franklin, Tenn., majoring in logistics with a minor in marketing. Jervis has been involved with SGA since his freshman year when he was selected as a member of the Freshman Council. Since then, Jervis has participated in the New Student Relations Student Services Committee, served as a College of Business Administration Senator and served on the Executive Committee as the City of Knoxville Liaison. Jervis said his party’s main goals are to establish a Student Allocation Fund, create an online syllabus, implement a system where students can use their VolCard on the Strip and develop UT’s own version of Craigslist called “Smokey’s List.” Zachari Tahiru, junior in logistics, is the presidential candidate for Transform and said his party will work to make SGA more transparent. “Transparency as in what SGA is doing to
• Photo courtesy of Transform
TRANSFORM
actively support and implement things that students want to see happen on campus,” Tahiru said. “If more students are aware of what SGA is doing that will lead us to the next thing we want to transform.” Although Tahiru has not had previous experience on SGA, he is involved in the second largest organization on campus behind SGA, the United Residence Halls Council as the President for Volunteer Hall Residence Association. The Fuse platform is focusing on four areas: moving SGA “Forward,” “Upgrading ” the daily life of students, “Syncing ” the students’ daily life with their academic life and “Empowering ” the student voice, Jervis said. “Each area is designed in a specific way so that it reflects current student needs and will help SGA fulfill its mission of bettering the student experience,” Jervis said. “This is not just our campaign; it’s the entire student body’s campaign.” Tahiru said he believes the Transform party is a great campaign and is “excited about the progression of campaign week.” Tahiru said that Transform would work to foster more student involvement at UT. He said there are a lot of students on campus that don’t seem to care about SGA, and Transform would like to help them realize the organization was put in place to represent their interests. Tahiru also said Transform would help the UT student body by contacting student governments across the state of Tennessee to help
tackle “issues revolving around the Hope Scholarship, differential tuition and overall budget cuts, to name a few.” Due to the lack of proposals by SGA senators in the past, Jervis said Fuse plans to hold every senator to a higher standard if elected. “We plan to implement an Activity Board on Blackboard which will display senators’ attendance, voting record and participation in SGA sponsored events,” Jervis said. He also plans to promote more student attendance at senate meetings so they can contribute and participate in open discussions about issues facing the student body. To address this same problem, members of Transform plan to assign each senator to a specific committee. “This way, all the senators will be able to focus on these problems and will be able to follow through in actually implementing the bills that are proposed,” Tahiru said. Tahiru added that this approach keeps senators from being “afraid to propose bills that they think may be shot down, or that they aren’t sure about.” Jeannie Watkins, junior, is on the ballot as Transform’s College of Business representative. Watkins said she chose to join Transform because their goal is make SGA work for all students, not just a select few. Students can vote on the SGA Web site at http://votesga.utk.edu. In the event of a tie for any position, a run-off election will be held on March 29 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
SGA DEBATE BROADCASTS Today & Thursday on TVC: 4p.m. , 7p.m. , 10p.m. , 11p.m. Can also be viewed on Web anytime at http://www.vimeo.com/volchannel
Simek discusses budget crisis at inaugural Honors Symposium Robby O’Daniel Chief Copy Editor Leading the Honors Symposium’s “University in Crisis” discussion, UT Interim President Jan Simek said the university will be a “different place,” facing major changes after stimulus funding runs out, but the challenge is not insurmountable. Simek, along with four honors students, participated in the panel discussion on Monday morning at the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium. Simek said, like the University of California system, UT faces a 30-percent budget reduction of its state appropriations. “That’s an extraordinary amount — over $112 million for the University of Tennessee alone, system-wide, and it’s upwards of $70 million to the Knoxville campus,” Simek said.
— from The Associated Press
See SYMPOSIUM on Page 3
Senator pushes student research Robby O’Daniel Chief Copy Editor U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander kicked off the university’s first annual Honors Symposium by encouraging UT to push to be a top research university in the country as well as to team up with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y12 National Security Complex. Alexander is no stranger to UT. In addition to serving as Tennessee’s governor and the education secretary under President George H.
W. Bush, he was UT president from 1988 to 1991. “People used to ask me: ‘What’s harder, being governor, a member of the president’s cabinet or president of a university?’” Alexander said. “And I would say, ‘Obviously you’ve never been president of a university, or you wouldn’t ask that question.’” Alexander said he supported Gov. Phil Bredesen’s goal of making UT a top 25 research university in the country. He said this usually also means at top research uni-
versity in the world, considering the United States’ wealth of research universities. In addition, since the Manhattan Project and World War II, he called research universities the secret to high standards of living in America, saying five percent in the country are researchers, and they make 25 percent of the money. He also encouraged UT to move closer to ORNL and Y-12. See ALEXANDER on Page 3